Our Right to Health

GMOFHI is pleased to announce “Our Right to Health”, a speaking tour of two scientists to our islands, Dr. Stephanie Seneff and Dr. Judy Carman. They will discuss the results of health and safety studies concerning Glyphosate and GMO foods, respectively. This is a great opportunity to become more fully informed about the safety issues and to hear in detail some of the problems associated with these products, so commonplace in our lives and communities.

Dr. Stephanie Seneff, for 30 years, has been a researcher and scientist in the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology links the research with the alarming rise in today’s diseases. Dr Senneff will be connecting the dots between the rise in the use of glyphosate, the active ingredient in the commonly used herbicide “Roundup,” and the link to the increase in obesity, allergies, autism, alzheimer’s (and more).

Dr. Judy Carman holds a PhD in Medicine, nutritional biochemistry and metabolic regulation; Dr. Carman conducted research on some of the first long-term, independent, animal feeding studies to investigate the safety of GMO crops in regards to human health. She will be talking about the safety of GM crops, including the research she has conducted with some of the first animal studies.

Please join us at one of these upcoming dates, for Pupus and an opportunity to meet our speakers:

Road-side Herbicide Spraying

During a recent legislative annual budget hearing, the County of Hawaii Council heard a full day of community testimony on the subject of de-funding the county’s road-side herbicide program, and replacing it with safer alternatives. Many ideas were presented, and the director of public works, as well as many council members showed support for trying a different approach. If you have any ideas that you would like to share with the county, please contact Public Works Director Warren Lee’s office at (808) 961-8321 and politely present concerns and ideas for solutions (we realize having our children walk through road sides sprayed with Roundup is an emotional issue). There are many different climates on Hawai’i Island to content with, so providing road-side weed control solutions is bound to require varied approaches.

Here is a short list of solutions. Please email GMO Free Hawai’i with other ideas to continue to add to this list.

Vinegar

Steam

Physical removal- such as around specific areas like waterways, as well as part of a long term replacement program with other types of plants besides “weeds”. Large stretches of the Hilo/Volcano hwy, for example, were once maintained in such a way, along with a mowing program in the shorter term. Once weeds have been removed the roadside can be planted with native plants, especially those that attract pollinators.

Animal, via portable pens

Flaming

C-Cide Concentrate (Testing in Kapoho by Hawaii’s Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides)

Anne Keala Kelly, a Hawaiian journalist, filmmaker, and activist, will speak at this year’s Earth at Risk. The event spans the weekend of November 22 and 23, with two full days of panels and speakers discussing environmental defense, social justice, and grassroots activism. Kelly will join such notables as Vandana Shiva, Alice Walker, Chris Hedges, and Derrick Jensen.

Kelly is scheduled for a panel on November 22, and the entire event should be well worth attending for anyone in the area. Please spread the word to anyone who might be able to make it!

Sophie Scholl – The Final Days (a German film with the original title of Sophie Scholl – Die letzten Tage) depicts the true story of a courageous young German woman, standing strongly behind her principles, as she faces charges in 1943 of undermining Nazi Germany. Scholl and a network of more than twenty others comprised the White Rose, opposing the Nazi regime through propaganda of graffiti and leaflets. The film centers on Scholl and her capture, interrogation, time in jail, and trial. A few other White Rose members are shown peripherally, most notably her brother Hans, captured with her during the same action.

After the depiction early in the film of the leaflet distribution which got the Scholls caught, the “action” ends, but if you’re interested in the dynamics of resistance movements and state repression, there’s still plenty to keep you engrossed. Sophie Scholl’s calm weaving of a plausible cover story under interrogation, followed by an equally calm steadfast defense of her beliefs, is gripping in its opposition to power in the face of grave danger. Scholl fights a battle of words for freedom and possibly life not only for herself, but for her brother, her parents, and many other comrades.

Stanley Diamond diagnosed: “Civilization originates in conquest abroad and repression at home.” Once the Scholls’ guilt is unequivocally revealed, Sophie eloquently argues with her interrogator and with the court, addressing the implications of Hitler’s empire. The argument ranges from practical concerns of the impossibility of Germany winning against the combined opposition of America, England, and Russia to philosophical questions of blindly following government laws vs using conscience and God as moral guides. The Scholls point out the inevitability of military defeat and the senseless slaughter of German and foreign soldiers; and decry concentration camps, the extermination of mentally ill children, and German soldiers killing women and children. As we experience now regarding modern atrocities, those in power react with willful denial, rage meant to silence, detached sociopathic justifications, and of course retribution. The poignancy of these few young people raising their voices against mass consensus and state repression is alleviated only by the viewers’ knowledge of the accuracy of their predictions of Nazi defeat and repercussions for those who upheld its odious operations.

We can take inspiration to be as brave and accurate as the Scholls and the White Rose as we speak out against civilization at the root of our ecological and social crises, and as we call for, predict, and enact its dismantling.

Besides aspiring to their level of courage and honesty, we can also learn from their mistakes. Hans and Sophie Scholl knew they were taking a huge risk by distributing leaflets during the day; the rest of their group urged them not to try it. Hans carried evidence incriminating not only himself, but another member of their network, and left more incriminating evidence at home, easily found in a house raid.

The lack of compartmentalization of the White Rose network exposed and endangered them all following the capture of the Scholls. Aric McBay describes aboveground and underground organizational structures in the Deep Green Resistance book and in his video presentation Organizational Structures for Resistance. Careful consideration of organizational structure and of Security Culture is required now more than ever in the face of advanced surveillance and investigative technologies.

Finally, the White Rose believed first that their leaflets and then that state persecution would spark a student uprising. That hope may or may not have been justified, but such a revolt never occurred, and is reminiscent of the belief of the 1970s Weather Underground that they could provoke a youth rebellion by rioting and fighting cops in the street. We need to work from a realistic strategy based on a realistic assessment of likely engagement, and not just hope that our example will motivate a critical mass to take action.

Sophie Scholl – The Final Days is a moving glimpse into one of many historical resistance movements from which we can learn and take inspiration.

TUES 5/20

THURS 5/22

9:00 am to 4:30 pm UH Hilo room UCB100

UH Soil health and composting symposium. The College of Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resource Management (CAFNRM) at the University of Hawai`i at Hilo and the County of Hawai`i will host a free, public forum entitled “Building Momentum Toward a Resilient and Sustainable Local Farming Culture.” Dr. Hector Valenzuela of the UH Manoa College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources (CTAHR) and Dr. Norman Arancon of CAFNRM will be the lead presenters with discussion facilitation by Interim CAFNRM Dean Bruce Mathews and County Councilwoman Margaret Wille, Chair of the County Council’s Committee on Agriculture, Water, Energy, Sustainability. Morning presentations and panel discussions will focus on eco-friendly agro-ecological models, integrated crop-livestock systems and feed options, improving soil health, and increasing economical options for high quality compost. The afternoon sessions will include a discussion of little red fire ant control strategies and facilitated breakout sessions, followed panel discussions on how to move forward on the key areas of interest.

SAT 5/24

SAT 5/24

6:30-8:30 pm UH Hilo STB108 Dr. Lorin Pang of Maui, informs us about the health effects and other issues around genetic engineering and genetically engineered food and farming. His focus will also be on pesticides, and how pesticides affect the human body at the cellular level, and the unintended consequences of mixing different pesticides together. When mixed, as is done more often than not in the farm fields, they combine to create brand new untested chemicals that wreak havoc on the human body’s ability defend from the toxins.